The present invention relates to a system and a method of integrating a resource management system with a project management system such that they share various resource data, namely, human resources, facilities, and expenses stored previously in a database.
Project Management is an approach used to manage work within the constraints of time, cost and performance. The complex relationships between various competing resources, outcomes and client expectations that affect the performance and delivery of specified tasks require the application of methodologies particularly suited to the management of unique undertakings. The tasks might involve managing a plurality of technically complex projects, managing funding, and combining and managing the talents and time of hundreds of people. Project management has evolved to ensure that all such tasks are successfully completed in a most efficient and optimum manner.
Many systems available today tend to focus on either project management or resource management, but generally not both. As such, they tend to lack suitable functionality and flexibility. Although most project management systems work with resources, they do not usually provide a method of managing them independentlyxe2x80x94just through the project management system.
One such software-based project management tool is Microsoft Project(trademark), which is a popular tool for managing a project. It provides a powerful environment for managing events within a project, with the ability to roll up events, indicate predecessors of events, calculate critical paths, reschedule events in order to optimize the project schedule, etc. It also allows people to be assigned to events, and in this way, provides limited resource management. The major functions and features of the software are namely to initiate, plan, execute, control, and report progress of projects where the emphasis is placed upon using the software to effectively create and manage project schedules using accepted project management principles. The database, where the resource information is stored, cannot be shared or manipulated by a plurality of projects.
The present invention addresses all of the above problems and presents a system and a method for enhancing an existing project management system (known as iC21), which has been developed within Nortel Networks and is a powerful tool for managing multiple projects that is used to manage events in a similar fashion to the prior art. The invention seeks to provide an enhanced computer-based project management system capable of linking resource data within a resource management system to events of a project contained in a project management system at the database level, thereby rendering the system significantly versatile and advantageous over prior art techniques.
The present invention, relates to a system and a method of enhancing the iC21 system by integrating the project and the resource management systems so that all the projects and resource management systems share the same resource data. The resource information is defined so that it can be:
a. not attached to a project,
b. attached to a project, or
c. attached to an event within a project.
Accordingly, one aspect of the present invention provides a computer-based or internet-based integrated resource management system comprising: a project management system; a resource management system; a shared database linking the project management system and the resource management system, the shared database comprising resource data associated with a plurality of events associated with one or more projects; access means for providing event-based access to the resource management system for each event of a particular project, such that the resource data and desired functions of the resource management system may be linked to any given event and can be managed directly from within the event; and display means for displaying end-user information related to the use of the integrated resource management system.
Another aspect of the present invention provides in an improved computer-based or internet-based resource management system, a method of integrating a project management system and a resource management system, the method comprising the steps of: linking the project management system and the resource management system by a shared database which stores resource data associated with a plurality of events of one or more projects; and providing event-based access to the resource management system for each event of a particular project, such that the resource data and desired functions of the resource management system may be linked to any given event and can be managed directly from within the event.
The areas in which the system and method of the invention excel over the prior techniques reside in the amount of detail that can be attached to a resource assignment, and the types of resources that can be attached to an event. The prior systems only permit people to be attached to an event, with an associated percentage workload. Since the enhanced system of the invention attaches complete resource data information to an event, all details relating to projects, people, facilities and expenses are available, which is lacking in the prior art.